随着重启支付美国1.7万亿美元联邦学生贷款的另一个最后期限的临近，美国总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)准备决定是否取消一部分美国人的债务，并继续保持疫情时代的还款暂停——自他作为候选人以来，他一直以某种形式公开权衡这一全面举措。
如果不采取行动，许多美国人将不得不在9月1日开始支付他们的学生贷款，这是两年来的第一次。
但多名熟悉白宫政策讨论的人士告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，暂停贷款预计将被延长。暂停贷款是在唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统执政期间，在新冠肺炎爆发的混乱期间首次实施的。周二仍在进行的关于取消债务的谈判，迄今为止已经围绕免除年收入低于12.5万美元的人约1万美元达成一致，尽管细节仍在制定中。
知情人士称，有关联邦学生贷款的公告最早可能于周三发布。
在周二下午的一次采访中，美国教育部长米格尔·卡多纳告诉美国广播公司新闻，备受期待的贷款豁免决定将“很快”做出，但对细节含糊其辞。
“我们认识到这对许多家庭来说是一个重要的问题。我们希望确保他们直接从总统那里获得信息。
白宫没有证实任何进一步的细节，只是说总统将在8月31日之前就此发表更多意见。
白宫发言人阿卜杜拉·哈桑说:“提醒一下，自拜登总统上任以来，没有一个拥有联邦贷款的人必须支付一分钱的学生贷款，本届政府已经为超过160万美国人取消了约320亿美元的债务，这比历史上任何一届政府都多。”他指的是为上欺诈性大学的人提供的债务减免，以及为在公共服务部门工作10年的人免除债务的重组计划。
但是更多具体的细节是关于多少钱将被免除，以及谁对仍有联邦学生贷款债务的4500多万美国人有很高的需求。
三分之一的联邦贷款借款人不到10，000美元，这意味着如果这项政策实现，他们可能会看到他们的债务被完全清除。另外20%的借款人，大约900万人，他们的债务将至少削减一半。
如此重大的取消似乎是拜登在没有国会的情况下迈出的一大步，但法律和政策专家表示，这一点更清楚:这一举措完全在总统的权限范围内——只是因为政治影响，以前没有用过。
“根据《高等教育法》，总统拥有相当广泛的权力，”福特汉姆大学(Fordham University)专注于联邦财政政策的法学教授约翰·布鲁克斯说。
“很大程度上取决于取消的规模。取消的金额越小，问题就越简单，”布鲁克斯说。“一笔勾销所有学生债务可能更难，但总统通过教育部长确实有权调整任何借款人的贷款金额。”
尽管如此，拜登可能会被送上法庭——可能会损失收入的贷款服务机构，或者可能认为拜登花钱的方式没有被立法者挪用的国会议员。
外部专家还想知道，一旦政策宣布，取消学生贷款的过程需要多长时间，以及借款人通过这一过程会有多复杂，这些都是尚未公布的细节。
一些人担心，由于预期的收入上限，如果取消债务的申请变得过于劳动密集型，人们可能会被遗漏。
“白宫将要求教育部做一些非常困难的事情，这将导致拒绝减免低收入人群和经济弱势人群的债务，他们最难通过这些复杂的文书程序，”学生借款人保护中心(Student借方Protection Center)的执行董事和联合创始人迈克·皮尔斯(Mike Pierce)在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时表示，该中心是一个倡导普遍取消债务的智库。
Pierce和包括全美有色人种协进会在内的其他支持者表示，最平稳的道路将包括对所有人全面和普遍取消债务。
“如果谣言是真的，我们就有麻烦了。可悲的是，我们以前经历过很多次，”全美有色人种协进会总裁德里克·约翰逊在周二的一份声明中对潜在政策声明的细节做出回应。
“拜登总统关于学生债务的决定不能成为将黑人——尤其是黑人妇女——抛在后面的政策的最新例子。这不是你对待黑人选民的方式，他们以创纪录的人数参加了投票，并为2020年再次拯救民主提供了90%的选票，”约翰逊说。
但对于许多借款人和取消学生债务的倡导者来说，特别是近一半拥有联邦学生贷款的人，他们将看到他们的债务被消除或大幅削减，拜登的政策仍将是一个值得庆祝的原因，并被视为改革学院和大学系统的开始，成本上升已成为一个主要关注领域。
对于密歇根教师尼克·富勒来说，拜登可能会在冬季金融危机之前宣布学生贷款，那时他的取暖费会飙升。
虽然富勒在离开学校的头几年努力工作以偿还他的学校债务，然后在疫情的大部分时间里冻结了他的贷款，但他担心在每月生活费的基础上重新开始付款可能会让他走上绝路。
富勒告诉美国广播公司新闻说:“我认为冬天情况会变得非常紧张，因为我的水电费会更高。”“我指的是1月和2月，近两个月来最高气温为零度，最低气温为零下20度。”
他说，如果拜登原谅富勒剩余的10，000美元学生贷款账单，寒冷的气温可能会稍微刺痛一点。
“这大约是我剩余债务的三分之二，”他说。
他说，这将使付款“在我的情况下更负担得起，也更容易管理”。
缓解学生债务危机——这也是特朗普教育部长贝琪·德沃斯在2018年描述这个问题的方式——也可能有助于严重的教师短缺，这种短缺在最近一个学年开始时造成了数千名员工空缺，富勒自己也看到了这一点。
2022年8月9日，美国总统乔·拜登在华盛顿白宫东厅。
Evelyn Hockstein/路透社，文件
随着贷款减免期限的临近，工资缩水和通货膨胀加剧让许多教师紧张不安。
由于黑人学生是负债增长最快的群体之一，倡导者认为取消一些学生贷款也可以开始解决种族不平等问题。
作为一名背负学生债务的黑人女性，达拉斯学院教育认证主任Shareefah Mason直接感受到了这种影响。她领导着一个项目的学徒部分，该项目将学生与实习伙伴配对，以确保他们在学习的同时获得收入，有效地减少了有抱负的教师的教育债务。
“我背负着7万美元的学生贷款，”梅森告诉美国广播公司新闻。"数据显示，学生贷款债务对黑人女性的影响是指数级的，而且不成比例."
根据关注教育改革的非营利组织教育信托(Education Trust)的数据，黑人女性学生的平均债务额为38800美元，高于其他任何群体。
但是梅森的项目，德克萨斯州第一个全职带薪教师学徒，让学生获得该州最便宜的学士学位之一，梅森说。
她说，目标是帮助未来的教育者打破她作为黑人女性所面临的代沟。
梅森说，“他们将不必担心学生贷款债务”，这可能为历史上缺乏接受高等教育手段的少数民族社区打开更多的大门。梅森说:“作为达拉斯市的一名教师，我的学生第一年的收入将超过6万美元。”
梅森说，对于美国最受影响的借款人，“需要为他们创造一个空间，让他们赚足够的钱来支付学生贷款，而不必牺牲他们为家庭创造代际财富的能力。”
President Biden poised to announce some form of student loan forgiveness: Sources
As another deadline nears on the restart of payments for America's $1.7 trillion in federal student loans, President Joe Biden is poised to decide whether to cancel debt for a subset of Americans and continue to keep a pandemic-era pause on the repayments -- a sweeping move he has openly weighed in some form or another since his time as a candidate.
Without action, numerous Americans will -- for the first time in two years -- have to start paying their student loans on Sept. 1.
But multiple people familiar with White House policy discussions told ABC News that the loan pause, first put in place under President Donald Trump during the disruptions of COVID-19's onset, is expected to be extended. Talks about debt cancellation, which were still underway Tuesday, have so far coalesced around forgiving approximately $10,000 for people who make less than $125,000 a year -- though details are still being worked out.
An announcement on the federal student loans could come as early as Wednesday, sources familiar with the plan said.
In an interview on Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told ABC News that the much-anticipated decision on loan forgiveness would come "soon" but was vague on details.
"We recognize it's an important issue for many families. And we want to make sure that they get the information directly from the president," Cardona said.
The White House did not confirm any further details, saying only that the president would have more to say on this before Aug. 31.
"As a reminder, no one with a federally-held loan has had to pay a single dime in student loans since President Biden took office, and this Administration has already canceled about $32 billion in debt for more than 1.6 million Americans -- more than any Administration in history," White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan said, referring to debt relief for people who went to fraudulent universities and a restructured program to forgive debt for people who work in public service for 10 years.
But more specific details on how much money will be forgiven and for who are in high demand for the more than 45 million Americans who still have federal student loan debt.
One-third of federal loan borrowers have less than $10,000, meaning they could see their debts completely wiped out should this policy come to fruition. Another 20% of borrowers, around 9 million people, would have their debt at least slashed in half.
Such a major cancelation may seem like a big step for Biden to take without Congress, but legal and policy experts say it's clearer: The move would be well within the president's authority -- it just hasn't been wielded before because of the political implications.
"The president has some pretty broad authority under the Higher Education Act," said John Brooks, a law professor at Fordham University who focuses on federal fiscal policy.
"A lot depends on the size of the cancellation. The smaller the amount of cancellation, the easier the question is," Brooks said. "Wiping out all student debt with a single stroke might be tougher, but the president through the secretary of education does have the power to adjust the amount of loan principle that any borrower has."
Still, Biden could get taken to court -- possibly by loan servicing agencies who would lose revenue or by members of Congress who may believe Biden is spending money in a way that hasn't been appropriated by legislators.
Outside experts also wonder how long the processes would take to cancel student loans once a policy is announced -- and how complicated it would be for borrowers to work their way through it, which are details that have yet to be released.
Some fear that people might fall through the cracks if applications to cancel debt become too labor-intensive because of the prospective income cap.
"The White House is about to ask the Education Department to do something that is extraordinarily difficult, and that is going to have the effect of denying debt relief to low-income folks, economically vulnerable folks, who have the hardest time navigating these complicated paperwork processes," Mike Pierce, executive director and co-founder of the Student Borrower Protection Center, a think-tank that advocates for universal debt cancellation, told ABC News in an interview.
Pierce and other supporters for more progressive debt cancellation, including the NAACP, said the smoothest path would include full and universal cancellation for everyone.
"If the rumors are true, we've got a problem. And tragically, we've experienced this so many times before," NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement Tuesday, reacting to the details of the potential policy announcement.
"President Biden's decision on student debt cannot become the latest example of a policy that has left Black people - especially Black women - behind. This is not how you treat Black voters who turned out in record numbers and provided 90% of their vote to once again save democracy in 2020," Johnson said.
But for many borrowers and advocates for canceling student debt -- particularly the nearly half of people with federal student loans who would see their debt extinguished or cut significantly -- Biden's policy would still be cause for major celebration and be seen as a start to reforming the college and university system, where rising costs have become a major area of focus.
For Michigan teacher Nick Fuller, a possible Biden announcement on student loans could come just before the financial crunch of winter, when his heating bills skyrocket.
Though Fuller worked hard his first few years out of school to pay down his school debt, and then had his loan frozen for much of the pandemic, he's concerned that restarting payments on top of monthly living costs could put him over the edge.
"I think things will get really tight in the winter because my utility bills are higher," Fuller told ABC News. "I mean for January and February -- the highs are zero and the lows are -20 [degrees] for almost two months."
The frozen temperatures might sting a little bit less if Biden forgives $10,000 of Fuller's remaining student loan bills, he said.
"It's about two-thirds of the debt that I have left," he said.
That would make payments "a lot more affordable and a lot more manageable in my situation," he said.
Easing the student debt crisis -- which is also how Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos described the issue in 2018 -- could also aid a crippling teacher shortage that has caused thousands of staff vacancies at the start of the latest school year, something Fuller has seen himself.
Pinched salaries and rising inflation have had many teachers on edge with the loan forgiveness deadline approaching.
And because Black students are among the fastest growing group of people taking on debt, advocates argue that canceling some student loans could also begin to address racial inequities.
Shareefah Mason, the dean of Educator Certification at Dallas College, feels this impact firsthand as a Black woman with student debt. She leads the apprenticeship component of a program that pairs students with residency partners to ensure they earn while they learn, effectively reducing education debt for aspiring teachers.
"I bear the weight of $70,000 in student loans," Mason told ABC News. "The data shows that student loan debt exponentially impacts and disproportionately impacts Black women."
The average amount of student debt accrued by Black women is more than any other group at $38,800, according to Education Trust, a nonprofit focused on education reform.
But Mason's program, the very first full-time paid teacher apprenticeship in the state of Texas, allows students to earn one of the cheapest bachelor's degrees in the state, Mason said.
The goal, she said, is to aid future educators in breaking the generational barriers that she has faced as a Black woman.
Mason said "they will not have to worry about student loan debt," which could open more doors for minority communities that have historically lacked the means to access higher education. "My students will be able to earn, as a first year teacher in the city of Dallas, upwards of $60,000," Mason said.
For the nation's most impacted borrowers, Mason said, "there needs to be a space created for them to make enough money to pay their student loans without having to sacrifice their ability to create generational wealth for their families."
